The subject invention relates to an apparatus and method for automatically issuing tickets at remote locations and automatically validating such tickets when presented. More particularly, it relates to an apparatus and method for issuing and validating airline tickets.
Tickets such as airline and sports tickets are documents having a substantial intrinsic value which typically may be presented by any bearer to gain admittance or exercise an entitlement. Since such tickets may have substantial cash value there exists a continuing problem of validating such tickets. The problem of validation is further complicated, particularly for airline tickets, by the market need to issue such tickets at large numbers difference locations and at various times.
Presently, issuance of tickets, such as airline tickets, is controlled by means of controlled supplies (e.g. serialized ticket stock) and by allowing tickets to be issued only by controlled, authorized issuers (e.g. travel agents). Controlled supplies are expensive, difficult to control, and prone to theft or counterfeiting. Authorized and controlled issuers are an expensive complication of the process of issuing and validating tickets where, in the case of airline tickets, travel agents collect a 10% commission of the retail ticket price for issuing tickets on behalf of the airlines. Perhaps more importantly, because of the various ways in which a ticket may be issued reconciliation of tickets (i.e. matching of the issuance, use, and payment for a ticket) is generally a manual, labor intensive job.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,961; to: J. Pastor; for: RELIABLE DOCUMENT AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM; issued: Aug. 1, 1989, which is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses one scheme for the authentication of valuable documents. In this patent a document is authenticated by imprinting on the document information encrypted with an encryption key for a public key encryption system, such as the well known RSA system. A corresponding decryption key is encrypted with a second encryption key and also printed on the document. A verifying or validating station stores a decryption key corresponding to the second encryption key, decrypts the encrypted decryption key, uses the decryption key so recovered to decrypt the encrypted information on the document, and tests the recovered information to validate the document. In this system the verifying station need only store a single decryption key while a number of authenticating stations may issue documents in a manner such that compromise of one issuing station will not compromise the entire system.
While believed satisfactory for the general problem of authenticating and validating documents the system closed in the Pastor patent is not specifically adapted to the problem of issuing and validating tickets; and is particularly not adapted to solve the problem of reconciling ticket usage.
Thus it is an object of the subject invention to provide an apparatus and method for securely issuing tickets, such as airline tickets, at remote locations and for automatically validating such tickets when presented.